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It's All Yours! The Giveaway Lottery Winners

A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery have given nearly every penny away.

It's All Yours! The Giveaway Lottery Winners Enlarge photo Allen and Violet Large won their fortune in July and decided to donate 98% of it, saving the rest - around £130,000 - for a rainy day.

"We were quite happy with what we had and the way we were going," said Mr Large, a 75-year-old retired welder.

"We have no plans. We're not travellers. We're not night-prowlers. We're not bar-hoppers."

After taking care of their family, the Larges donated the rest to churches, fire departments, cemeteries and the Red Cross, as well as hospitals where Mrs Large, who has cancer, has undergone treatment.

Mr Large said he and his wife decided a week before they picked up their winnings to give most of it away.

He said they had worked for 30 years in Ontario and put away money every year before retiring and returning home to Nova Scotia.

"We weren't millionaires before but we had enough to keep us going in our retirement years," said Mr Large.

Word of the couple's generosity has generated a wealth of attention from the media. "We're not used to all this attention," Mr Large said from the couple's modest home in Lower Truro.

"We're just plain, old country folks."

Diwali (also called as Deepalwali)

Diwali
Diwali (also called as Deepalwali), is a festival of lights, symbolize victory of Good over Evil...

People put candles to show path to Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity) to their home. We also play crackers.

According to the Vedic culture, the message of Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya (from darkness unto light) is given through the festival of Deepawali to all peoples of the world.

During the night of Deepawali the myriads of little clay lamps (dias) seem to silently send forth Deepawali messages:

Come let us remove darkness from the face of the earth. This is not the work to be done by one dia or by one individual. It requires collective effort. In the diffusion of light the question of high and low is forgotten. This is the lesson taught by both small and big dias.

The second message of the burning Dias is to destroy the difference between rich and poor- the destruction of discrimination based on poverty and wealth. The burning dia, whether in a palatial bungalow or in a grass hut, is a symbol of this unity. The wall of separation based on economic status cannot prevent the penetration and spread of the light of the dia.

The third message of the burning diias of Deepawali is to kindle the extinguished lights of our neighbors. Let us find out what is needed- whether there is a shortage of wick or oil- and just by a little help the neighbor’s lamps can be lit. One dia can light several others. A little charity can bring joy to countless others. The row of lamps teach yet another lesson and that is of unity as exemplified in Satyam, Shivam Sundaram- Truth, Joy and Beauty.

The lights of Deepawali are displayed at the entrance doors, by the walls of houses, in the streets and lanes. This means that the inner spiritual light of the individual must be reflected outside.

Passersby may thereby be prevented from stumbling on their way to reach their destination.

The lights of the dias on earth beckon the lights in the firmaments to descend upon earth and establish the heavenly kingdom of God for the welfare of the human race.

Feeding empty stomachs, lighting blown-out dias and providing cheer and joy amongst the downtrodden is to enter the true spirit of Deepawali. This is the true prayer to Lakshmi Devi.

Wishing you all once again Happy Deepawali..

In Love and Light, Pankaj

Excerpt from Sacred Circuitry, 20.06.2010

[…] This transmission we would like to focus on the idea that we called in your language “sacred
circuitry”. You all have diagrams of some, just a few, of the sacred circuits.
What this is a reference to, is a particular tool, a particular technique, a
particular reflective idea that is unique in a very specific way. Most times,
what we have shared with you, as tools and techniques and permission slips,
have come from our own society’s understandings, our own society’s applications
of these principles that we discussed with you.

While we have ourselves adopted and adapted this idea within our society, this particular
technique comes as a gift, as a sharing handed down from other societies in
Creation. We will only go so far back as to say that while it did not originate
with them, what is relevant to this particular interaction is that this
particular technique was also adopted and adapted by the civilization, the
physical civilization in the star system of Sirius and handed down to the
hybrid civilization that we have already spoken of, that we call “The First
Ones”, The Shalinaya or the Yahyel, who have handed it down to our
civilization, the Sassani people. And now, we hand it down to you.

So this is the first time that we are sharing a technique, a tool, a permission slip, a gift handed down as a gift from other civilizations
in a specific succession. And you are next in line to receive this gift, this
sharing. So we bequeath this now to you to make it your own, to adopt it and
adapt it to your own imaginings, your own civilization.

So, while we will give you some brief instruction as to how perhaps to utilize this particular permission slip, please understand that in
time, you may also rely upon your own imagination – the conduit between your
physical mind and higher mind, your spirit guides, your synchronicities, your
own understandings of the choices that you have made to experience this
reality; you may rely on these things to adapt this idea, this tool, in whatever
way, shape or form suits you best, individually
and collectively.

But the basic idea is that it will tap into – like many permission slips – a collective consciousness and unconsciousness of your
civilization, the collective world spirit of your civilization. And that is
why, even though you may adapt it in a very personal manner, it will have some
effect on most of you, even though it is a permission slip and you are giving
yourself persmission by simply using this as a reflection to become more of
yourselves, it will key into those things that are extremely common with most
of you because it taps right into the idea of the wiring of the brain, the
neurological wiring of your brain.

As we have said before, there are 3 levels to the idea of the reception of information in the idea of physical reality. There is The
Higher Mind – which is the conceiver, there is the Physical Brain – which is
the receiver, the antenna, and there is the Physical Mind – which is the
perceiver of the experience. This permission slip, this gift, this sharing
handed down, is specifically designed to assit you in rewiring and adapting
your receiver, your antenna, your brain, your physical brain, in such a manner
as to allow for many different things, one of which is greater communication
between your Physical Mind and Higher Mind, allowing your brain to become not
just super-conductive, but hyper-conductive, allowing information to go
smoothly, effortlessly in both directions, from Physical to Higher, from Higher
to Physical. Thus, acting also more as a network, allowing you to associate
more readily, tap into and access more information more readily, gain
perspectives that allow for broader understandings of various levels of your
reality experience, and allow you to tap into broader capability at perceiving
other levels of reality, other dimensions of experience.

Of course, as we have also said, each and every thought you have changes the wiring of your brain and that is based specifically on what we
spoke of last night of your time (note: in “Shifting Through Infinity”
transmission) in terms of shifting through parallel realities, the idea being
that you are truly a different person, a new person literally every moment. The
idea of learning how to consciously re-wire your brains in specific ways, will
allow you more efficacy in becoming the person that you wish to become, that
you prefer to become, who you prefer to be and thus then, along with that, the
attendant parallel reality that’s reflective of that state.

Now, as you gaze at the first 15 of the sacred circuits – and there are many many more, but we will start here, we will keep it simple.
The idea, first and foremost, one way that you can begin to utilize these,
would be to take some time, on your own time, to turn each and everyone of
these into its own, as you call them, flash card, individually – 15 flash
cards, each one with one symbol and one word upon it. As you thus create these
flash cards, 1 to 15, with each attendant circuit and attendant word, the idea
would be to sit in a quiet and meditative way, a relaxed and peaceful way, in
an environment that you find relaxing and peaceful, with music if you wish,
with colours if you wish – however you wish it to be, that to you represents a
peaceful state without interruption – the idea being that you will take and
gaze at each one of these in succession, in order, 1 minute a card for 15
minutes.

Do this 3 days in row, 1 card at a time, one minute per card, in order, 1 through 15, in 15 minutes.

And as you simply gaze and ponder and allow your mind to drift, and just absorb the idea of the shape, just absorb the idea of the
attendant concept, without thinking, without analyzing, just let it in, just
gaze at it, just let your eyes be the true windows to your soul, your spirit,
your mind and everything else. Allow yourselves the opportunity to just sit
with these shapes and know that as you do so, what they are doing is that they
are specifically designed to allow the neurological circuitry in your brain to
re-wire itself to be representative of each and everyone of these symbolic
shapes so that it may function in accord with the concept that is attendant to
the shape. And overall, over the course of those 15, allow you to more
holistically function in a hyper-connective, hyper-conductive associative
accessing way to knowledge, information about yourself, about the Cosmos, about
All That Is in whatever way, shape or form is appropriate for you as an
individual aspect of Creation.

After you have done it 3 days in a row, in order, 1 through 15, each time, thereafter, thereafter you may do it in any order you so desire,
any order you are attracted to, whatever is in that sense, you are wishing to
focus on, You may do it in that way and you do not necessarily have to even do
them all. You may find yourselves sometimes gravitating to simply 1, 2 or 3 or
more in any given day.

The idea, however, is that how many ever you decide on any given single day – and you do not need to do this more than once a day – you
can do it twice, you can do it three times; I would not suggest you do it more
– the idea is that you need to allow your brain time to adapt, time to
incorporate, time to absorb, time to crystallize these effects, these
adaptations, these circuits.

So, start slow, start soft, let it take whatever time it is natural for it to take. And if you only do less than 15 in any given day –
after you do the first 3 days in the order in which they come – then allow
yourself again, in any given sitting, even if you’re only using one, to not do
it for more than 15 minutes.

As we have spoken of before, in the session that we entitled “15 Minutes & Counting”, and as you have observed and will observe, with
the meditation that is attendant to the holotope experience, 15 minutes is the
time frame in your reality that best suits the absorption of information and
the alteration in the re-wiring of the brain for a specific task. Longer than
that is really not efficient. Longer than that can actually, in some senses,
before it is in that sense absorbed appropriately and adapted appropriately,
before it is crystallized can actually allow you to lose the effect a little
bit.

So, keep it simple, keep it short, always keep it to 15 minutes. You do not need more than that. Guaranteed.[...]

Dearest Friends, Another week has flown by. I don’t know about you, but I’m happy to get to the weekend. Have a wonderful week also. I wish you unconditional Love, abundance in all, Joy and much laughter for a divine weekend, Loads of Blessings. Melodie

Creation of the Yakima World - A Yakima Legend

In the beginning of the world, all was water. Whee-me-me-ow-ah, the Great Chief Above, lived up in the sky all alone. When he decided to make the world, he went down to the shallow places in the water and began to throw up great handfuls of mud that became land.

He piled some of the mud so high that it froze hard and made the mountains. When the rain came, it turned into ice and snow on top of the high mountains. Some of the mud was hardened into rocks. Since that time the rocks have not changed - they have only become harder.

The Great Chief Above made trees grow on the earth, and also roots and berries. He made a man out of a ball of mud and told him to take fish from the waters, and deer and other game from the forests.

When the man became lonely, the Great Chief Above made a woman to be his companion and taught her how to dress skins, how to find bark and roots, and how to make baskets out of them. He taught her which berries to gather for food and how to pick them and dry them. He showed her how to cook the salmon and the game that the man brought.

Once when the woman was asleep, she had a dream, and in it she wondered what more she could do to please the man. She prayed to the Great Chief Above for help. He answered her prayer by blowing his breath on her and giving her something which she could not see or hear, smell or touch.

This invisible something was preserved in a basket. Through it, the first woman taught her daughters and granddaughters the designs and skills which had been taught her.

But in spite of all the things the Great Chief Above did for them, the new people quarreled. They bickered so much that Mother Earth was angry, and in her anger she shook the mountains so hard that those hanging over the narrow part of Big River fell down.

The rocks, falling into the water, dammed the stream and also made rapids and waterfalls. Many people and animals were killed and buried under the rocks and mountains.

Someday the Great Chief Above will overturn those mountains and rocks. Then the spirits that once lived in the bones buried there will go back into them.

At present those spirits live in the tops of the mountains, watching their children on the earth and waiting for the great change which is to come. The voices of these spirits can be heard in the mountains at all times. Mourners who wail for their dead hear spirit voices reply, and thus they know that their lost ones are always near.

We did not know all this by ourselves; we were told it by our fathers and grandfathers, who learned it from their fathers and grandfathers. No one knows when the Great Chief Above will overturn the mountains.
But we do know this: the spirits will return only to the remains of people who in life kept the beliefs of their grandfathers. Only their bones will be preserved under the mountains.

Tsi - Laan (Deep Water) - A Yakima Legend

Once there was more than enough game, plants, and fish of every kind for the people. to eat. But they took their wealth for granted and were rude to Spilyay (coyote) when he offered them more food. Consequently, they lost almost everything they had. This is the story I will tell you...

There was a time that coyote was going around telling the animal world that there was going to be a change. He told them, "We are going to be reduced in power. There are others coming who are going to be rulers over all of us, and over all this country." Coyote was talking about the new people, the people with two legs - people we now call native Americans.

So he began to prepare. One day, coyote came up the Columbia River to the Chelan River. He looked it over and felt there was something he should do here. He asked his "power" what he should do (the power or counselors were his five sisters which he carried around inside of him). The sisters told him that there were no fish in the Chelan River that he should fix it so the fish could swim up the river. At that time the Chelan River was too swift and the salmon could not go up the river.

Coyote decided to build steps with rocks for the salmon to swim up the river. He widened a narrow gorge for them to swim through. He made a deep pool under the falls so the salmon could rest up before they swam up river.

And that is not all the coyote did! When he came up to Mud Flats, he found that the river was too shallow, so he built a high rocky cliff and a rapids and made another little pool for the fish to rest. Coyote was very busy. He traveled to many places, fixing streams and rivers so that the salmon could come and spawn. He did this for the new people.

But one day while coyote was working on a place called Dry Lake, he left his canoe on the shore. He had seen a pretty girl living with the new people. He told the people, "I want the most beautiful princess you have in your village and I'll fix up a lot of places where you can catch many fish. I'll even make places where you can dry your own fish." But the people told him, "We don't need your fish. We will not give you our prettiest girl.

We have enough game here to live on. We have mountain goats, mountain lion, game birds, quail, grouse and turtle doves and we have bear and deer. We don't need your fish."

Coyote (who was known for a having a very bad temper, as well as being a trickster), grew angry. He had worked very hard to make places for the salmon to live so that the new people would have fresh fish to eat. So he started back and began destroying everything that he had created. He destroyed all of the fishing sites, drove out all the fish from the spawning grounds, and he made the water holes dry up. He left his canoe in the Chelan River, but so that no one would get any use out of it, he turned it into stone (there is a cliff there now). He took back everything that was worthwhile.

Chelan River Cliffs Chelan Rock Canoe

Now most of the lakes have only small fish. Coyote said, "they can have a few minnows, but there will never be any more big fish". This is why many places in North Central Washington are without Salmon. The only way to get fish in many lakes is by planting them there.

http://loveandlightworld.ning.com/group/lightofmayancalendar/forum/topics/mayan-priest-the-world-will

Near-Death Experience NDE Story of Mellen -Thomas Benedict Journey Through the Light and Back

In 1982 I died from terminal cancer. The condition I had was inoperable, and any kind of chemotherapy they could give me would just have made me more of a vegetable. I was given six to eight months to live.

I had been an information freak in the1970’s, and I had become increasingly despondent over the nuclear crisis, the ecology crisis, and so forth. So, since I did not have a spiritual basis, I began to believe that nature had made a mistake, and that we were probably a cancerous organism on the planet. I saw no way that we could get out from all the problems we had created for ourselves and the planet. I perceived all humans as cancer, and that is what I got.

That is what killed me. Be careful what your world view is. It can feed back on you, especially if it is a negative world view. I had a seriously negative one. That is what led me into my death. I tried all sorts of alternative healing methods, but nothing helped.

So I determined that this was really just between me and God. I had never really faced God before, or even dealt with God. I was not into any kind of spirituality at the time, but I began a journey into learning about spirituality and alterna¬tive healing. I set out to do all the reading I could and bone up on the subject, because I did not want to be surprised on the other side. So I started reading on various religions and philosophies. They were all very interesting, and gave hope that there was something on the other side. I ended up in hospice care.

I remember waking up one morning at home about 4:30 AM, and I just knew that this was it. This was the day I was going to die. So I called a few friends and said goodbye. I woke up my hospice caretaker and told her. I had a private agreement with her that she would leave my dead body alone for six hours, since I had read that all kinds of interesting things happen when you die. I went back to sleep.

The next thing I remember is the beginning of a typical near-death experience. Suddenly I was fully aware and I was standing up, but my body was in the bed. There was this darkness around me. Being out of my body was even more vivid than ordinary experience. It was so vivid that I could see every room in the house, I could see the top of the house, I could see around the house, I could see under the house.

There was this Light shining. I turned toward the Light. The Light was very similar to what many other people have described in their near-death experiences. It was so magnificent. It is tangible; you can feel it. It is alluring; you want to go to it like you would want to go to your ideal mother’s or father’s arms.

As I began to move toward the Light, I knew intuitively that if I went to the Light, I would be dead. So as I was moving toward the Light I said, “Please wait a minute, just hold on a second here. I want to think about this; I would like to talk to you before I go.” To my surprise, the entire experience halted at that point. You are in control of your life after death experience. You are not on a roller coaster ride.

So my request was honored and I had some conversations with the Light. The Light kept changing into different figures, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, mandalas, archetypal images and signs. I asked the Light, “What is going on here? Please, Light, clarify yourself for me. I really want to know the reality of the situation.” I cannot really say the exact words, because it was sort of telepathy.

The Light responded. The information transferred to me was that during your life after death experience your beliefs shape the kind of feedback you are getting before the Light. If you were a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you get a feedback loop of your own stuff. You have a chance to look at it and examine it, but most people do not. As the Light revealed itself to me, I became aware that what I was really seeing was our higher Self matrix.

We all have a higher Self, or an oversoul part of our being. It revealed itself to me in its truest energy form. The only way I can really describe it is that the being of the higher Self is more like a conduit. It did not look like that, but it is a direct connection to the Source that each and every one of us has. We are directly connected to the Source. So the Light was showing me the higher Self matrix. I was not committed to one particular religion. So that is what was being fed back to me during my life after death experience.

As I asked the Light to keep clearing for me, to keep explaining, I understood what the higher Self matrix is. We have a grid around the planet where all the higher Selves are connected.

This is like a great company, a next subtle level of energy around us, the spirit level, you might say. Then, after a couple of minutes, I asked for more clarification. I really wanted to know what the universe is about, and I was ready to go at that time. I said “I am ready, take me.”

Then the Light turned into the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen: a mandala of human souls on this planet. Now I came to this with my negative view of what was happening on the planet. So as I asked the Light to keep clarifying for me, I saw in this magnificent mandala how beautiful we all are in our essence, our core. We are the most beautiful creations.

The human soul, the human matrix that we all make together is absolutely fantastic, elegant, exotic, everything. I just cannot say enough about how it changed my opinion of human beings in that instant. I said, “Oh, God, I did not know how beautiful we are.” At any level, high or low, in whatever shape you are in, you are the most beautiful creation, you are.

The revelations coming from the Light and seemed to go on and on, then I asked the Light, “Does this mean that Mankind will be saved?” Then, like a trumpet blast with a shower of spiraling lights, the Great Light spoke, saying, “Remember this and never forget; you save, redeem and heal yourself. You always have. You always will. You were created with the power to do so from before the beginning of the world.”

In that instant I realized even more. I realized that WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN SAVED, and we saved ourselves because we were designed to self-correct like the rest of God’s universe.

This is what the second coming is about. I thanked the Light of God with all my heart. The best thing I could come up with was these simple words of total appreciation: “Oh dear God, dear Universe, dear Great Self, I Love My Life.”

The Light seemed to breathe me in even more deeply. It was as if the Light was completely absorbing me. The Love Light is, to this day, indescribable. I entered into another realm, more profound than the last, and became aware of something more, much more. It was an enormous stream of Light, vast and full, deep in the Heart of Life. I asked what this was.

The Light responded, “This is the RIVER OF LIFE. Drink of this manna water to your heart’s content.” So I did. I took one big drink and then another. To drink of Life Itself! I was in ecstasy.
Then the Light said, “You have a desire.” The Light knew all about me, everything past, present and future. “Yes!” I whispered.

I asked to see the rest of the Universe; beyond our solar system, beyond all human illusion. The Light then told me that I could go with the Stream. I did, and was carried Through the Light at the End of the Tunnel. I felt and heard a series of very soft sonic booms. What a rush!

Suddenly I seemed to be rocketing away from the planet on this stream of Life. I saw the earth fly away. The solar system, in all its splendor, whizzed by and disappeared. At faster than light speed, I flew through the center of the galaxy, absorbing more knowledge as I went. I learned that this galaxy, and all of the Universe, is bursting with many different varieties of LIFE. I saw many worlds. The good news is that we are not alone in this Universe!

As I rode this stream of consciousness through the center of the galaxy, the stream was expanding in awesome fractal waves of energy. The super clusters of galaxies with all their ancient wisdom flew by. At first I thought I was going somewhere; actually traveling. But then I realized that, as the stream was expanding, my own consciousness was also expanding to take in everything in the Universe! All creation passed by me. It was an unimaginable wonder! I truly was a Wonder Child; a babe in Wonderland!

At this point, I found myself in a profound stillness, beyond all silence. I could see or perceive FOREVER, beyond Infinity.

I was in the Void.

I was in pre-creation, before the Big Bang. I had crossed over the beginning of time/the First Word/the First vibration. I was in the Eye of Creation. I felt as if I was touching the Face of God. It was not a religious feeling. Simply I was at one with Absolute Life and Consciousness.

When I say that I could see or perceive forever, I mean that I could experience all of creation generating itself. It was without beginning and without end. That’s a mind expanding thought, isn’t it?

Scientists perceive the Big Bang as a single event which created the Universe. I saw during my life after death experience that the Big Bang is only one of an infinite number of Big Bangs creating Universes endlessly and simultaneously. The only images that even come close in human terms would be those created by super computers using fractal geometry equations.

The ancients knew of this. They said God had periodically created new Universes by breathing out, and recreated other Universes by breathing in. These epochs were called Yugas. Modern science called this the Big Bang. I was in absolute, pure consciousness. I could see or perceive all the Big Bangs or Yugas creating and recreating themselves. Instantly I entered into them all simultaneously. I saw that each and every little piece of creation has the power to create. It is very difficult to try to explain this. I am still speechless about this.

It took me years after I returned from my near-death experience to assimilate any words at all for the Void experience. I can tell you this now: the Void is less than nothing, yet more than everything that is! The Void is absolute zero; chaos forming all possibilities. It is Absolute Consciousness; much more than even Universal Intelligence.

The Void is the vacuum or nothingness between all physical manifestations. The SPACE between atoms and their components. Modern science has begun to study this space between everything. They call it Zero point. Whenever they try to measure it, their instruments go off the scale, or to infinity, so to speak. They have no way, as of yet, to measure infinity accurately.

There is more of the 0 space in your own body and the Universe than anything else!

What mystics call the Void is not a void. It is so full of energy, a different kind of energy that has created everything that we are. Everything since the Big Bang is vibration, from the first Word, which is the first vibration. The biblical “I am” really has a question mark after it. “I am—What am I?” So creation is God exploring God’s Self through every way imaginable, in an on¬going, infinite exploration through every one of us. I began to see during my near-death experience that everything that is, is the Self, literally, your Self, my Self. Everything is the great Self. That is why God knows even when a leaf falls. That is possible because wherever you are is the center of the universe. Wherever any atom is, that is the center of the universe. There is God in that, and God in the Void.

As I was exploring the Void during my life after death experience and all the Yugas or creations, I was completely out of time and space as we know it. In this expanded state, I discovered that creation is about Absolute Pure Consciousness, or God, coming into the Experience of Life as we know it. The Void itself is devoid of experience. It is pre life, before the first vibration. Godhead is about more than Life and Death. Therefore there is even more than Life and Death to experience in the Universe!

When I realized this I was finished with the Void, and wanted to return to this creation, or Yuga. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. Then I suddenly came back through the second Light, or the Big Bang, hearing several more velvet booms. I rode the stream of consciousness back through all of creation, and what a ride it was! The super clusters of galaxies came through me with even more insights. I passed through the center of our galaxy, which is a black hole. Black holes are the great processors or recyclers of the Universe.

Do you know what is on the other side of a Black Hole? We are; our galaxy, which has been reprocessed from another Universe. In its total energy configuration, the galaxy looked like a fantastic city of lights. All energy this side of the Big Bang is light. Every sub atom, atom, star, planet, even consciousness itself is made of light and has a frequency and/or particle. Light is living stuff. Everything is made of light, even stones. So everything is alive. Everything is made from the Light of God; everything is very intelligent.

As I rode the stream on and on, I could eventually see a huge Light coming. I knew it was the First Light; the higher Self Light Matrix of our solar system. Then the entire solar system appeared in the Light, accompanied by one of those velvet booms.

I could see all the energy that this solar system generates, and it is an incredible light show! I could hear the Music of the Spheres. Our solar system, as do all celestial bodies, generates a unique matrix of light, sound and vibratory energies. Advanced civilizations from other star systems can spot life as we know it in the universe by the vibratory or energy matrix imprint. It is child’s play. The earth’s Wonder child (human beings) make an abundance of sound right now, like children playing in the backyard of the universe.

The Light explained to me that there is no death; we are immortal beings. We have already been alive forever! I realized that we are part of a natural living system that recycles itself endlessly. I was never told that I had to come back. I just knew that I would. It was only natural, from what I had seen during my life after death experience.

I don’t know how long I was with the Light, in human time. But there came a moment when I realized that all my questions had been answered and my return was near. When I say that all my questions were answered on the other side, I mean to say just that. All my questions have been answered. Every human has a different life and set of questions to explore. Some of our questions are Universal, but each of us is exploring this thing we call Life in our own unique way. So is every other form of life, from mountains to every leaf on every tree.

And that is very important to the rest of us in this Universe. Because it all contributes to the Big Picture, the fullness of Life. We are literally God exploring God’s self in an infinite Dance of Life. Your uniqueness enhances all of Life.

As I began my return to the life cycle, it never crossed my mind, nor was I told that I would return to the same body. It just did not matter. I had complete trust in the Light and the Life process. As the stream merged with the great Light, I asked never to forget the revelations and the feelings of what I had learned on the other side.

There was a “Yes.” It felt like a kiss to my soul.

Then I was taken back through the Light into the vibratory realm again. The whole process reversed, with even more information being given to me. I came back home, and I was given lessons from my near-death experience on the mechanics of reincarnation. I was given answers to all those little questions I had: “How does this work? How does that work?” I knew that I would be reincarnated.

The earth is a great processor of energy, and individual consciousness evolves out of that into each one of us. I thought of myself as a human for the first time, and I was happy to be that.

From what I have seen, I would be happy to be an atom in this universe. An atom. So to be the human part of God... this is the most fantastic blessing. It is a blessing beyond our wildest estimation of what blessing can be. For each and every one of us to be the human part of this experience is awesome, and magnificent. Each and every one of us, no matter where we are, screwed up or not, is a blessing to the planet, right where we are.

I went through the reincarnation process expecting to be a baby somewhere. But I was given a lesson on how individual identity and consciousness evolve. I was so surprised when I opened my eyes. I do not know why, because I understood it, but it was still such a surprise to be back in this body, back in my room with someone looking over me crying her eyes out. It was my hospice caretaker. She had given up an hour and a half after finding me dead. My body was stiff and inflexible. She went into the other room. Then I awakened and saw the light outside. I tried to get up to go to it, but I fell out of the bed. She heard a loud “clunk,” ran in and found me on the floor.

When I recovered, I was very surprised and yet very awed about what had happened to me during my near-death experience. At first all the memory of the trip that I have now was not there. I kept slipping out of this world and kept asking, “Am I alive?” This world seemed more like a dream than that one. Within three days I was feeling normal again, clearer, yet different than I had ever felt in my life. My memory of my near-death experience came back later. I could see nothing wrong with any human being I had ever seen. Before that I was really judgmental. I thought a lot of people were really screwed up, in fact I thought that everybody was screwed up but me. But I got clear on all that.

About three months later a friend said I should get tested, so I went and got the scans and so forth. I really felt good, so I was afraid of getting bad news. I remember the doctor at the clinic looking at the before and after scans, saying, “Well, there is nothing here now.” I said, “Really, it must be a miracle”’ He said “No, these things happen; they are called spontaneous remission.”

He acted very unimpressed. But here was a miracle, and I was impressed, even if no one else was.

During my near-death experience I had a descent into what you might call Hell, and it was very surprising. I did not see Satan or evil. My descent into Hell was a descent into each person’s customized human misery, ignorance, and darkness of not knowing. It seemed like a miserable eternity. But each of the millions of souls around me had a little star of light always available. But no one seemed to pay attention to it. They were so consumed with their own grief, trauma and misery. But, after what seemed an eternity, I started calling out to that Light, like a child calling to a parent for help.

Then the Light opened up and formed a tunnel that came right to me and insulated me from all that fear and pain, That is what Hell really is. So what we are doing is learning to hold hands, to come together. The doors of Hell are open now. We are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out of Hell together. The Light came to me and turned into a huge golden angel. I said, “Are you the angel of death?” It expressed to me that it was my oversoul, my higher Self matrix, a super ancient part of ourselves. Then I was taken to the Light.

Soon our science will quantify spirit. Isn’t that going to be wonderful? We are coming up with devices now that are sensitive to subtle energy or spirit energy. Physicists use these atomic colliders to smash atoms to see what they are made of. They have got it down to quarks and charm, and all that. Well, one day they are going to come down to the little thing that holds it all together, and they are going to have to call that ... God. We are just beginning to understand that we are creating too, as we go along. As I saw forever, I came to a realm during my near-death experience in which there is a point where we pass all knowledge and begin creating the next fractal, the next level. We have that power to create as we explore. And that is God expanding itself through us.

Since my return I have experienced the Light spontaneously, and I have learned how to get to that space almost any time in my meditation. Each one of you can do this. You do not have to die or have a near-death experience to do this. It is within your equipment; you are wired for it already. The body is the most magnificent Light being there is. The body is a universe of incredible Light. Spirit is not pushing us to dissolve this body. That is not what is happening. Stop trying to become God; God is becoming you. Here.

I asked God: “What is the best religion on the planet? Which one is right?” And Godhead said, with great love: “I don’t care.” That was incredible grace. When Godhead said, “I don’t care,” I immediately understood that it is for us to care about. It is important, because we are the caring beings. It matters to us and that is where it is important. What you have is the energy equation in spirituality. Ultimate Godhead does not care if you are Protestant, Buddhist, or whatever. It is all a blooming facet of the whole. I wish that all religions would realize it and let each other be. It is not the end of each religion, but we are talking about the same God. Live and let live. Each has a different view. And it all adds up to the big picture; it is all important.

I went over to the other side during my near-death experience with a lot of fears about toxic waste, nuclear missiles, the population explosion, the rainforest. I came back loving every single problem. I love nuclear waste. I love the mushroom cloud; this is the holiest mandala that we have manifested to date, as an archetype. It, more than any religion or philosophy on earth, brought us together all of a sudden, to a new level of consciousness. Knowing that maybe we can blow up the planet fifty times, or 500 times, we finally realize that maybe we are all here together now.

For a period they had to keep setting off more bombs to get it in to us. Then we started saying, “we do not need this any more.” Now we are actually in a safer world than we have ever been in, and it is going to get safer. So I came back from my near-death experience loving toxic waste, because it brought us together. These things are so big. As Peter Russell might say, these problems are now “soul size.” Do we have soul size answers” YES!

The clearing of the rain forest will slow down, and in fifty years there will be more trees on the planet than in a long time. If you are into ecology, go for it; you are that part of the system that is becoming aware. Go for it with all your might, but do not be depressed. It is part of a larger thing.

Earth is in the process of domesticating itself. It is never again going to be as wild a place as it once was. There will be great wild places, reserves where nature thrives. Gardening and reserves will be the thing in the future. Population increase is getting very close to the optimal range of energy to cause a shift in consciousness. That shift in consciousness will change politics, money, energy.

After dying, going through my near-death experience and coming back, I really respect life and death. In our DNA experiments we may have opened the door to a great secret. Soon we will be able to live as long as we want to live in this body.

After living 150 years or so, there will be an intuitive soul sense that you will want to change channels. Living forever in one body is not as creative as reincarnation, as transferring energy in this fantastic vortex of energy that we are in. We are actually going to see the wisdom of life and death, and enjoy it. As it is now, we have already been alive forever.

This body, that you are in, has been alive forever. It comes from an unending stream of life, going back to the Big Bang and beyond.

This body gives life to the next life, in dense and subtle energy.

This body has been alive forever already.

Hello my beautiful friends, I wish you a wonderful weekend and week of love, laughter, peace and joy. Blessings & Pure Energy coming your way, Melodie

The creation of Man-Kind and the Flood - A Pima Legend

Pima People

After the world was ready, Earth Doctor made all kinds of animals and creeping things. Then he made images of clay, and told them to be people. After a while there were so many people that there was not food and water enough for all.

They were never sick and none died. At last there grew to be so many they were obliged to eat each other.

Then Earth Doctor, because he could not give them food and water enough, killed them all. He caught the hook of his staff into the sky and pulled it down so that it crushed all the people and all the animals, until there was nothing living on the earth.

Earth Doctor made a hole through the earth with his stick, and through that he went, coming out safe, but alone, on the other side.

He called upon the sun and moon to come out of the wreck of the world and sky, and they did so. But there was no sky for them to travel through, no stars, and no Milky Way. So Earth Doctor made these all over again.

Then he created another race of men and animals.

Then Coyote was born. Moon was his mother. When Coyote was large and strong he came to the land where the Pima Indians lived.

Coyote

Then Elder Brother was born. Earth was his mother, and Sky his father. He was so powerful that he spoke roughly to Earth Doctor, who trembled before him. The people began to increase in numbers, just as they had done before, but Elder Brother shortened their lives, so the earth did not become so crowded.

But Elder Brother did not like the people created by Earth Doctor, so he planned to destroy them again. So Elder Brother planned to create a magic baby. . . .

The screams of the baby shook the earth. They could be heard for a great distance. Then Earth Doctor called all the people together, and told them there would be a great flood. He sang a magic song and then bored a hole through the flat earth-plain through to the other side. Some of the people went into the hole to escape the flood that was coming, but not very many got through.

Some of the people asked Elder Brother to help them, but he did not answer. Only Coyote he answered. He told Coyote to find a big log and sit on it, so that he would float on the surface of the water with the driftwood. Elder Brother got into a big olla which he had made, and closed it tight. So he rolled along on the ground under the olla. He sang a magic song as he climbed into his olla.

Olla

A young man went to the place where the baby was screaming. Its tears were a great torrent which cut gorges in the earth before it. The water was rising all over the earth. He bent over the child to pick it up, and immediately both became birds and flew above the flood.

Only five birds were saved from the flood. One was a flicker and one a vulture. They clung by their beaks to the sky to keep themselves above the waters, but the tail of the flicker was washed by the waves and that is why it is stiff to this day. At last a god took pity on them and gave them power to make "nests of down" from their own breasts on which they floated on the water.

Flicker

One of these birds was the vipisimal, and if any one injures it to this day, the flood may come again.

Now South Doctor called his people to him and told them that a flood was coming. He sang a magic song and he bored a hole in the ground with a cane so that people might go through to the other side. Others he sent to Earth Doctor, but Earth Doctor told them they were too late. So they sent the people to the top of a high mountain called Crooked Mountain. South Doctor sang a magic song and traced his cane around the mountain, but that held back the waters only for a short time. Four times he sang and traced a line around the mountain, yet the flood rose again each time. There was only one thing more to do.

He held his magic crystals in his left hand and sang a song. Then he struck it with his cane. A thunder peal rang through the mountains. He threw his staff into the water and it cracked with a loud noise. Turning, he saw a dog near him. He said, "How high is the tide?" The dog said, "It is very near the top." He looked at the people as he said it. When they heard his voice they all turned to stone.

They stood just as they were, and they are there to this day in groups: some of the men talking, some of the women cooking, and some crying.

But Earth Doctor escaped by enclosing himself in his reed staff, which floated upon the water. Elder Brother rolled along in his olla until he came near the mouth of the Colorado River. The olla is now called Black Mountain. After the flood he came out and visited all parts of the land.

Pima Home and Way of Life

When he met Coyote and Earth Doctor, each claimed to have been the first to appear after the flood, but at last they admitted Elder Brother was the first, so he became ruler of the world.

Pima Baskets and Pottery

History Channel has featured an interesting program about alien abductees:

A famous hypnotherapist (Barbara Lamb) has regressed about 400 people who claim
having been subjected to medical experiments during their abduction, including
being implanted with devices.

Surgeon podiatrist Dr. Roger Leir has extracted a device made of metal implanted in Tim Cullen
(back in 1978): although there was no original entry scar, a 6 mm metallic object was found under
the skin; there was no inflammatory response to the object and the area of the body where the object
was found showed the presence of nerve cells that did not belong to that area.

On another guy, Dr. Roger could measure that the object was emitting two oscillating
frequencies, but once the object was removed, it did not work anymore;

He is convinced that these devices use the neural energy of the body

The objects contain metals that are not from our planet Earth.

MUFON is an organization recruiting private citizens to become investigators of

extraterrestrial beings and phenomenas.

This is fantastic video about the "Great Chinese State Circus", playing "Swank Lake".

Definately one of the most amazing things that I have seen...

Great Chinese State Circus - Swan Lake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMc-p19FIk

Your Time
posted by Deepak Chopra Oct 19, 2010

We all have a sense that time expands and contracts, seeming to drag one moment and race the next, but what is our constant, our absolute? I believe it is “me,” our core sense of self.

Consider all the subjective qualities we attach to time. We say things like: I don’t have time for that. Time’s up. Your time’s running out. How the time flies. Time hangs heavy. I love you so much, time stands still.
These statements do not say anything about time measured by the clock. The clock doesn’t lie about how much linear time has elapsed “out there.” But subjective time, the kind that exists only “in here,” is a different matter.

All the above statements reflect a state of self. If you’re bored, time hangs heavy; if you’re desperate, time’s running out; if you’re exhilarated, time flies; when you’re in love, time stands still. In other words, whenever you take an attitude toward time, you are really saying something about yourself. Time, in the subjective sense, is a mirror.

The element of time pressure also alters behavior, attitudes, and physiological responses. So subjective time can be an incredibly powerful force. Some people are much more sensitive to time pressure than others. How much better not to feel any time pressure, to blossom fully despite the fact that death exists.

The attitude that life is a blossoming, not a race, can be achieved. To do that, you can’t believe that time is running out. Sending that message to your body’s cells is the same, ultimately, as programming them to age and die.

Yet the fact is that linear time is moving inexorably forward, and to overcome that, we must find a place where a different kind of time, or no time, can be experienced and internalized.

Adapted from Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1998).


Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/your-time.html#ixzz12vEmXL5v

Adapted from Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief by David Winston and Steven Maimes (Healing Arts Press, 2007).

In the West, we don’t have a perfect word to describe the mind-body-spirit connection. We sometimes use the terms psychospiritual and psychophysiology to express the mind-body-spirit connection. There is also psychoneuroimmunology, the study of mind-body interactions and their effects on the immune system. Mind-body and/or spiritual energy are integrated with, not separate from, our physical body, and many believe that good health includes nourishing this connection.

Several adaptogen herbs have been used to aid meditation and deliver nutrients to the mind that are necessary for the experience of enlivened consciousness. They can be used as aids to elevate the mood and spirit and to calm the mind. The following adaptogens have been used to enhance the mind-body-spirit connection: Asian ginseng, holy basil, licorice, reishi and shatavari.

• Asian ginseng calms the spirit and helps one gain wisdom. It also could be said that ginseng calms the distressed mind while strengthening the body.

• Holy basil affects the body’s “energy field” according to Ayurvedic physician and author Dr. Vasant Lad, Holy basil opens the heart and the mind, bestowing the energy of love and devotion (bhakti).

• Licorice commonly is used as a tea by Buddhist monks and called “the peacemaker” herb by the Chinese. Licorice root tea helps calm and prepare the mind for meditation.

• Reishi generates a sense of inner calm and harmony while also heightening mental perception, both logical and intuitive.

• Shatavari is thought to foster the energy of tolerance and compassion.


Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/adaptogen-herbs-and-the-mind-body-spirit-connection.html#ixzz10OFIVdLY

Top 5 Green Houses of Worship (video)
posted by Cris Popenoe

This video shows five unusual and imaginative green houses of worship of five religions:

• The proposed Park51 Muslim center in lower Manhattan
• A Buddhist temple in Thailand built entirely of beer bottles
• A Hindu temple that bans all plastics
• A LEED certified Jewish temple in Illinois
• A church in Scotland that has developed its own 10 eco commandments.

Planet 100: Top 5 Green Houses of Worship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMd8-4TaE-E

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-5-green-houses-of-worship-video.html#ixzz10lRsCFBB

You've Made A Mistake. Now What?
by Amy Gallo


Anyone who has worked in an office for more than a day has made a mistake. While most people accept that slip-ups are unavoidable, no one likes to be responsible for them. The good news is that mistakes, even big ones, don't have to leave a permanent mark on your career. In fact, most contribute to organizational and personal learning; they are an essential part of experimentation and a prerequisite for innovation. So don't worry: if you've made a mistake at work, — and, again, who hasn't? — you can recover gracefully and use the experience to learn and grow.

What the Experts Say
According to Paul Schoemaker, the research director for the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and co-author of the forthcoming Brilliant Mistakes, most people tend to overreact to their slip-ups. They "make asymmetric evaluation of gains and losses so that losses loom much larger than gains," he explains. As a result, they may be tempted to hide their mistakes, or even worse, continue down paths that have proven unproductive. This "sunk cost fallacy" can be dangerous and expensive.

It is much better to accept mistakes, learn from them, and move on. "Look forward and base decisions on the future not the past," Schoemaker says. Christopher Gergen, the director of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative at Duke University and co-author of Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives, agrees.

The most useful thing you can do is "translate a mistake into a valuable moment of leadership," he says

Here are a few guiding principles to help you turn your gaffes into gold:

Fess up and acknowledge your mistake
First and foremost, it's critical to be transparent, candid, and own up to the error. Don't try to blame others.

Even if it was a group mistake, acknowledge your role in it. In cases where someone was hurt, issue an apology. However, don't apologize too much or be defensive. The key is to be action-oriented and focus on the future. How will your misstep be remedied? What will you do differently going forward?

Once you've admitted your blunder, it may be appropriate to reframe it. Reframing is not making an excuse, but a genuine effort to help people see the mistake in a different light. Poor decisions or flawed processes can sometimes lead to mistakes, but that doesn't mean that every bad outcome is a mistake. Gergen says it's important to understand what was external and internal, what was in your control and what wasn't. Explaining in a non-defensive way what led to the mistake can help people better understand why it happened and how to avoid it in the future.

Change your ways
Mistakes play a critical role in leadership development. "The best kind of mistake is where the costs are low but the learning is high," Schoemaker says. If the error was a result of a poor decision, explain to your boss and other interested parties how you will avoid making the same or a similar misstep in the future. You have to respond quickly before people make judgments about your competence or expertise. "You need to get on top of it, get ahead of it, and deal with it," Gergen says.

By demonstrating that you've changed as a result of your mistake, you reassure your superiors, peers, and direct reports that you can be trusted with equally important tasks or decisions in the future. "If you are going to pay the price for making the mistake, you need to get the learning," Schoemaker says. This is far easier in a learning culture than in a performance-focused culture, in which mistakes are often viewed more harshly. But regardless of the office environment, you need to figure out "how you can translate the mistake from a liability into an asset," Gergen says.

Rely on your support network
A strong support network can help you. "Our research shows that a healthy support network has three components: authentic trusting relationships, a diverse range of perspectives, and is reciprocal," Gergen says. Ask current or former colleagues or people outside the organization for their perspective on the mistake and what they believe you can do to recover. They are likely to have some useful advice about how to frame the error and restore your reputation.

Get back out there
It can be hard to rebuild confidence after slipping up. The key is to not let your errors make you afraid of experimentation. Once the mistake is behind you, focus on the future. If it made people question your expertise, put more data points out there to rebuild their trust. Remember that mistakes are not signs of weakness or ineptitude; recovering from them demonstrates resilience and perseverance. Both Gergen and Schoemaker emphasize that many employers look for people who made mistakes and came out ahead.

Not all mistakes are created equal
Mistakes vary in degree and type and some can be tougher to recover from than others. Schoemaker notes that group mistakes are often easier to get over because there is a diffusion of responsibility. Mistakes that involve breaking someone's trust can have lasting consequences and contrition is critical. If your mistake has caused someone to lose trust in you, approach the person and offer a sincere apology. Ask what you can do to restore his trust. But be patient — forgiveness may take a long time.

Principles to Remember

Do:
Accept responsibility for your role in the mistake
Show that you've learned and will behave differently going forward
Demonstrate that you can be trusted with equally important decisions in the future

Don't:
Be defensive or blame others
Make mistakes that violate people's trust — these are the toughest to recover from
Stop experimenting or hold back because of a misstep

Case Study #1: A supportive boss and colleagues speed up recovery

As the associate director of the Science & Environmental Health Network (SEHN), one of Katie Silberman's responsibilities is to manage the nonprofit organization's grant applications. Last August, Katie created a calendar to track important funding dates; it included due dates for current grant reports as well as deadlines to reapply for future funding. In late January, Katie emailed the foundation officer at one of the organization's primary funders to check in about their re-application for 2010, thinking she was ahead of schedule. But the Foundation Officer replied that the 2010 deadline had just passed. Katie was shocked. She had a March deadline on her calendar — that was when the report for the 2009 grant was due and Katie expected they would talk about reapplying then. SEHN needed the Foundation grant to make it through the year. "To lose a funder in this environment isn't just bad, it's catastrophic," Katie says. It turns out that each January someone at SEHN calls the foundation officer to discuss that year's cycle. Katie wasn't aware of this informal meeting, but it was her responsibility to know each funder relationship in and out and to ensure that the organization was on top of each funding opportunity.

Katie immediately called her boss, explained the mistake and offered ideas about how they could secure new funding sources to keep the organization afloat. Because she was forthright, she and the rest of the SEHN team were extremely supportive, offering to join a team call and do whatever they could to help. The foundation officer had let Katie know that there was a deadline in May for a separate round of funding and so SEHN has decided to submit an idea for a new project conceived at a recent retreat. Katie is optimistic they'll get it funded.

While Katie felt like she had made an enormous mistake, she learned from it. Her calendar of deadlines now also includes "unwritten" ones and meetings in addition to the hard dates issued by funders.

Case Study #2: Don't blame the economy, change your ways

In the late 1990s, Christopher Gergen, one of our experts from above, co-founded Smarthinking.com, an online tutoring service for high school and college students. Christopher and his partner raised their first round of financing in the spring of 1999. The company grew quickly: by the beginning of 2000, it had 30 employees and was ready to launch. Then the dot com bubble burst. In a matter of weeks, the company's financing fell through. With six weeks of cash in the bank, Christopher and his co-founder were facing one of the biggest mistakes of their lives. Like many, they failed to foresee the bubble bursting and left the company and themselves exposed.

Christopher had prior experience with companies facing hard times and had seen leaders hide behind closed doors. He and his co-founder took a different approach. They brought their whole staff together and explained exactly what needed to happen to save the company. Emphasizing that they couldn't pull it off alone, they were clear about what each person and function needed to do.

They "limped" through that spring and summer, but were able to raise a $5 million round of funding in the fall and winter. While Christopher could easily blame the economy for what happened, he takes full responsibility for putting the company in an over-extended position. "While outside circumstances were not in our control, the ability to manage through it was," he says. Most importantly, he learned from the mistake and began to take a much more disciplined approach to cash flow. As a result of how he and his co-founder handled the aftermath, the company indeed survived and now has cohesive culture with practically no turnover. It just celebrated its eleventh anniversary and made it through the recent downturn with very few hiccups.

Packing 400 lunches - and love - to serve the homeless

Kansas City's 'mother of the streets' rises at 4:30 each morning, packs 400 decorated bags, and then seeks out the homeless.

Marcia Merrick’ s Reaching Out Inc., in Kansas City, Mo., serves the city’s homeless. Here, she delivers socks and toiletries.

David Conrads
By David Conrads, Contributor / March 8, 2010
Kansas City, Mo.


For years, Marcia Merrick began her day making lunches for her two children. Her kids are grown up now, but Ms. Merrick still makes lunches every morning – 400 of them. Each decorated paper bag contains a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich or a bean burrito, chips, fruit, and two homemade cookies. She also includes a note of encouragement – and then distributes them to the homeless of Kansas City, Mo.

Dubbed the “mother of the streets,” Merrick starts every day (Christmas and other holidays included) at 4:30 a.m. so she can finish her preparations and make the 15-minute drive to downtown Kansas City by 6 a.m., the time when most homeless shelters close and their overnight guests are turned out. She also makes stops at homeless encampments tucked away in secluded spots around the fringes of the city, under bridges and highway overpasses, and along the banks of the Missouri River.

Each day is a little different. She gives out half of the 400 lunches in the morning and the rest during a similar afternoon run, before the shelters open again at 4 p.m. The time in between is taken up with other tasks, such as driving someone to a social services office or to court or a health clinic. She also gives away items like clothing and bedding based on individual needs. In addition, Merrick and the volunteers who work with her help some 370 homeless families a year.

Merrick doesn’t just feed and clothe the homeless. She talks with them, learns their names, listens to their stories, and gives them hugs and encouraging words. As a result, she’s well known on the streets of Kansas City and has the trust of many of the city’s homeless.

“Really, the food and clothing I give them is just a way to get into their hearts,” she says. “A lot of them want to change, but they don’t have ... the knowledge and the emotional support to do that. Some have been on the streets so long they don’t even know where to start.”

What keeps her going, she says, is the success she has had in helping destitute individuals and families turn their lives around.

Kim and Wayne Hill are one such case. The self-employed house painters found their work all but evaporated when the economy began to sour a few years ago. In time they lost their house and found themselves living with their young son in a family shelter.

That’s where they met Merrick. She was able to do many things to help them reclaim a normal life, including helping Mr. Hill receive much needed dental work. She even found painting jobs for the couple.

“I can’t begin to tell you everything Marcia did for us,” says Mrs. Hill, whose family now lives in an apartment in a large complex, where her husband is the staff painter. “She’s so compassionate. She’s good at finding that place in your heart that’s lacking – any heartache or sadness – and then filling that void. She’s the ultimate mother.”

Merrick works not only to meet the basic needs of the homeless, but to uphold their dignity and self-respect.

Gloria Brown is the kitchen manager for the City Union Mission Family Center, which provides long-term shelter for homeless families. One Saturday a month, Merrick and a group of volunteers bring food and prepare and serve a breakfast to the residents, who number as many as 120. Ms. Brown says that instead of having the residents line up and receive their food at the serving window, as is customary, Merrick puts out place mats, silverware, and a small vase of flowers on each table. She and her helpers then take the residents’ orders.

“They wait on them like they are in a restaurant,” Brown says. “She just likes to treat them with respect and let them know that somebody cares about them.”

“Marcia serves,” says Gary Blakeman, a retiree and volunteer who has worked with Merrick for seven years. “She doesn’t just dole out food. She actually serves the homeless. And she does what she does with love. She’s truly concerned with their welfare.”

Merrick says her work of providing care and hope for society’s disadvantaged began when she was in high school in Wichita, Kan. She made several church mission trips, one for an entire summer, where she first encountered large numbers of needy people.

“I realized what a difference it makes in how I felt, caring for other people,” she says. “I didn’t know it then, but I think I was developing a heart for people who had been shunted aside by society.”

Her charitable work took a back seat to her own family for a time. But 10 years ago, when her daughter was 15, Merrick felt the need to resume her caring activities. At first, she matched up friends and acquaintances who had items they were willing to give away with people in need. The recipients were not just the homeless, but also victims of domestic violence, the unemployed, the recently divorced – pretty much anyone she knew of who had a need.

“It kind of snowballed from there,” she says. In 2001, as her activity increased and donors asked for tax write-offs, she started a nonprofit, Reaching Out Inc. Today, about 80 percent of her work is for the homeless.

Her organization works with an area church, which provides her with storage space for food, furniture, and supplies. An ever-changing roster of volunteers – school groups, church groups, friends, and acquaintances – help with decorating the bags, putting together hygiene bags (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, clean pair of socks, and the like), baking cookies, and organizing food and clothing drives. Occasionally, volunteers go out with her on her rounds.

Merrick herself gets by modestly on alimony and a small pension. Circumstances may compel her to return to the paid workforce sometime this summer, which would necessitate an adjustment to her current grueling volunteer schedule. Regardless of what the future holds, she says, she will continue to work on behalf of the homeless in one way or another.

“I truly believe we can make a difference in their lives, and I don’t want anybody to ever think that somebody doesn’t care,” she says. “They’re homeless, but they’re still human.”
To learn more about Marcia Merrick’s work, go to www.reachingoutinc.org

Do you believe in superheroes? After you watch this video, you will.

Amy Pankratz, a stay-at-home mother of three in South Dakota, crafts custom capes for sick children and their siblings. She reads their story, she thinks about them, and she prays for them as she is making each cape...infusing it with special powers of hope and courage for each child. And it works! As 5-year-old Brooke Mulford (a.k.a "Super Brooke") says, "It helps me to be brave".


Superhero Capes Provide Hope & Inspiration for Sick Children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRxT-1N07og